CLOSET CASES: QUEERS ON WHAT WE WEAR
named a best non-fiction book of 2020 by PopMatters & nominated for Georgia Author of the Year ("Specialty" category)
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"an in-depth look at the emotional and cultural components that impact
what we put on our bodies" - Sonny Oram for Qwear "being able to inspire other gender nonconforming folx to wear what they want and enjoy their self-presentation is another theme that resonates" - Linda Leavitt for PopMatters "Every shade of the queer rainbow is here: trans, bi, nonbinary, leatherman, old-school butch – You name it. These are tender, painful, playful testimonies to the power and importance of clothes for queers. Clothes become statements of nonconformity, of radical gender fucking, of seduction, illusion, and protection against a hostile world." - Jonathan Kemp for QueerGuru As a verb, "fashion" is exceedingly queer. Our queer community learns to fashion its identity out of the clothes we wear, the costumes we choose, the fabrics we desire--and the statements these make. No other community of people allows clothing to serve as such a primary, dominant marker of subjectivity, both individually and collectively. And we don't simply permit it; we rely upon it. Queers communicate through what we put on our bodies.
So this is not merely a "fashion book." It's a collection of artifacts that testify to the power of fashion as a verb, to the complex and lovely strategies that govern what we do in the LGBTQ+ community to build authentic selves that are both comfortable and seen. |
ET ALIA PRESS, 2020
VIRTUAL GIG #1
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editorial inspiration:
what to read when you don't know what to wear |
